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WEATHER

WATCH: Spain’s Mallorca battered by storm with gale force winds and heavy rain

Strong winds and heavy rains slammed Spain on its Mediterranean coast on Sunday, particularly the Balearic island of Mallorca, causing serious damage and flight disruptions.

Published: 28 August 2023 09:11 CEST
WATCH: Spain's Mallorca battered by storm with gale force winds and heavy rain
Fallen trees and flooded streets were also reported across the region. (Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP)

Gusts of up to 120 kilometres per hour (75 miles per hour), downpours and hail hit the Balearic islands as well as Catalonia and Valencia on mainland Spain, which were all under a high-risk warning by the national meteorological agency Aemet.

Local authorities reported several people were injured, according to the Spanish press.

Thousands of people in the Balearics have been left without electricity.

Fallen trees and flooded streets were also reported across the region.

The wind broke the moorings of a 330-metre (1,080 feet) cruise ship stationed in Palma, on the island of Mallorca, and drove it into a moored oil tanker, injuring six people, the Balearic islands port authority said.

Spanish airport operator Aena said 24 flights were cancelled and 29 were diverted to and from the islands. Up to 100 flights to and from the Balearics were reported affected on Monday. 

Aemet has extended the weather warning until Monday for a small portion of the archipelago and Catalonia.

The risk is expected to decrease by Tuesday.

The storm came with a drop in temperatures, which follows Spain’s fourth heatwave this summer that had ended Thursday.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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